The Enemy of my Enemy
by FantasiaWandering
Summary: War makes for unlikely allies, and when the dimensional breach in the ocean floor allows monsters into the world, four unlikely heroes emerge from the shadows to save their city from destruction. As a hapless rookie learns the truth behind the elusive Rangers who pilot the Jaeger called Shell Shocker, he must adapt to this strange new reality, or be consumed by the Kaiju war.
1. Chapter 1

_I'm sorry, I know there is Falling and Second Chance and Shards to get through, but this won't leave me alone, so I'm starting it in the hopes that it will clear my head and let me do other things. I'll likely go back and polish it up once I've had a chance to see the movie again and can get a lot of the details right. It's kind of an AU, but the reason I couldn't help but write it is that I can also totally see how the events of Pacific Rim could fit into the TMNT-verse three years down the line._

_I owe this to xenelle055's drawing on DeviantArt and to azraelskeith on tumblr for planting the idea in my head and for the Jaeger's name._

* * *

The massive steel doors clanged shut behind him, and the echo that reverberated through the soles of his feet were worse than any of the times that a cell door shut behind him. Shouldering the duffel bag that contained all his worldly possessions, painfully aware of how small it was.

It certainly didn't look much different than prison. Featureless concrete walls adorned with serial numbers to help differentiate one corridor from another stretched off in several directions, populated by PPDC personnel who refused to look at him.

"Don't take it personally," a dry voice said behind him. "They try very hard not to get attached to rookies. Makes it easier on them when you leave."

AJ turned, a brow raising at the sight of the uniform standing before him. "Marshall Takahashi?"

The Marshall inclined his head and gestured for AJ to follow as he started down a corridor. Trying to hold back a sigh, he fell in at the Marshall's heels like the good little lap dog he'd been told to be. "Tell me, Rookie," Takahashi said, pausing at a door that opened to reveal a cramped elevator. "How much did you learn about the war while you were locked up in juvie?"

"Enough. And it wasn't juvie, sir," AJ said, stepping in behind the Marshall. "Hasn't been juvie for a while."

Takahashi waved a hand. "That facility you've been in and out of since you lost your mother in the first landfall is a baby jail," he said. "Don't think we're going to treat you nearly as nice in here."

Trying not to bristle as the Marshall punched a code into the elevator's keypad, AJ asked, "you know about my ma?"

"You're in my Shatterdome, kid, I make it my business to know everything about you. If I had my way, I'd have nothing but the country's finest in here. But we lost the country's finest in the Mark Ones, so now Rookies like you have the option of transferring to grown up jail at age twenty-one, or getting sent to basic training. Very soon we'll have a proper academy and we won't have this problem, but for now, we're stuck with what we can get" He turned to look at AJ, and the corner of his mouth quirked. "I think it's a terrible idea, but since the folks I answer to don't seem to give a damn what I think, I picked you. Fly straight, don't make waves, and you just might survive to be a Ranger." He planted a hand on AJ's shoulder. "Whether or not you survive after that is anybody's guess."

Again, Takahashi had managed to get the drop on him. "You picked me?" He followed as the elevator doors opened onto another featureless corridor. "With all due respect, sir, why?"

"Because, kid, you got thrown into baby jail for stealing rations."

"Lotsa people steal rations," AJ pointed out as he followed the Marshall.

"True," said Takahashi. "But very few of them are caught giving them away to street kids." They came to another set of doors. "We do things a bit differently here. You'll be required to keep certain secrets, and we don't exactly do things by the book. We could use someone with a sense of fair play."

AJ's response was lost as the Marshall punched the big red button next to the door, and they slipped open with a ringing alarm.

The room beyond was enormous. AJ had never seen anything like it. As he stepped through, craning his neck, he couldn't even begin to fathom just how high up it went. And all of it was to accommodate… _them._

The Jaegers.

Despite himself, he stared around at them in awe. Being on the Atlantic, the East Coast wasn't as badly hit, but that hadn't stopped the Kaiju from slipping around the tip of South America and slamming New York in the first wave that had taken his mom. And so, as one of the most densely populated coastal cities on the planet which the monsters seemed to have a personal vendetta against, New York had gotten three Jaegers. But it was the third that caught his attention, and he couldn't help gaping at it. "Is that… Shell Shocker?"

"In the flesh, so to speak," said Takahashi. "Play your cards right, and you just might survive meeting her pilots."

AJ blinked at him. "Huh?"

"You'll understand later." The Marshall flagged down a young woman who was hurrying past, and though her expression clearly indicated that she had places she wanted to be, she fell in to attention. "Yes, Marshall?"

"O'Neil, if you would be so kind as to show our Rookie here the ropes, I would be greatly obliged."

At Takahashi's dry tone, she schooled her expression into one somewhat less put-upon, and shifted the clipboard she was holding to rest more comfortably in the crook of her arm. "Of course, sir." She brushed a strand of red hair out of her eyes. "Come on. Let's get you settled in."

AJ glanced back over his shoulder at Takahashi, who was already striding across the bay to the glassed-in area he could only assume was the LOCCENT Mission Control, and looked at the - he checked her ID - the Ranger tapping her foot impatiently. "Is he always so…vague?"

Her expression softened a little, and she shrugged. "We're a little unconventional here. You tend to get tight-lipped about things." She held out her hand. "April O'Neil, Communications Officer."

He grinned at her. "Ain't you a little too young and pretty to be an Officer."

He could have kicked himself a minute later as her expression shuttered. "I'm twenty," she said coldly. "And I've been through more than you have. I know, I've read your file."

Now it was his turn to look offended. "Isn't that private?"

"Not when you're getting access to Shell Shocker's team, it isn't," she said, and with that cryptic statement, she was off, striding across the bay and leaving him scrambling to keep up.

"Wait a second," he called out to her, having to yell to be heard over the din of the Jaeger bay. "What the hell do you mean by—"

His protests ended as he collided with a bulky figure in a leather flight jacket. As he stumbled, biting back a curse, the first thing he noticed was Shell Shocker's logo embroidered proudly on the front of the jacket. But as he stepped back and got a look at the jacket's owner, his breath left him in a rush.

The scales… the three fingers reaching for him…. He let out a screeching cry and grabbed a wrench from a nearby tool table. "_Kaiju!_" he bellowed in warning as he launched himself at the creature, bringing the wrench down straight at his head.

He was never really sure what happened next. He was vaguely aware of the three-fingered hand grabbing his wrist, and then the world flipped and spun, and he was lying on his back with the air driven from his lungs. As he rolled around, struggling to breathe, the green face of his attacker loomed over him, and blue eyes widened behind a blue mask. A red mask joined the first – _two _Kaiju? – and a voice rife with irritation said, "Aw, great. Another one."

_Wait… they _talk?

Purple and orange joined the first two, followed by April's face. Her expression of annoyance did little to reassure him.

"Is he dead?" the orange one asked, picking up the wrench AJ had dropped and poking him with it.

"No, I think his head's too thick for that," said April.

"Takahashi sure knows how to pick 'em," said the purple one. "Come on. That gyro isn't gonna calibrate itself."

And then they were gone, leaving AJ sprawled on the floor and wondering if maybe he wouldn't have been better off in jail after all…


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

It wasn't long before another face filled his field of vision, scathing dark eyes peering at him from a face crowned with a riot of hair dyed aggressively purple. "April told me to come finish your tour 'cause she was mad at you and wanted to hit you with a wrench." The girl crouched down next to him, resting her forearms on her knees as she looked him over. "You made some crack about the turtles looking like monsters, didn't you?"

He winced, rubbing the back of his head. "Uh…kinda. I might have called the blue one a kaiju and tried to hit him with the wrench."

She hissed through her teeth, her eyes widening. "You tried to hit _Leo_ and you're not in the infirmary? I'm impressed. But I guess it could have been worse. You could have tried to hit Raph." She grabbed hold of his wrist and tugged him to his feet.

AJ groaned as the world spun. "Who?"

The girl huffed, rolling her eyes. "Leo wears blue, Mikey wears orange, Donnie wears purple, and Raph wears red. I'm Angel. You're late. Try to keep up."

Reeling, AJ attempted to follow the list of names, and blinked at the girl. "Late for what?"

"Assesment with the Training Marshal," she said. "Duh. You wanna be a Ranger, you gotta pass him first. If he flunks you out, you'll spend the rest of the war as a grunt, no matter what you do to try to make good." She eyed him skeptically. "You _do_ wanna be a Ranger, right?"

AJ picked his duffel off the ground and slung it over his shoulder. "That's why they sent me here." He shrugged. "Got into a lot of fights in jail." Honesty compelled him to add, "and before jail. They said I could be useful if I channeled all that into fighting kaiju."

"That's what I thought," she said. "Come on."

Not waiting to see if he followed, she strode across the Jaeger Bay to one of the side corridors. With a bemused sigh, AJ chased after her. "So why am I training if all three Jaegers already have pilots?"

"One, pilots get hurt and they need backups already in the wings," she said, not breaking stride. "And two, if we have good teams ready to go, Takahashi can make the argument to the PPDC for more Jaegers. New York's been hit hard enough already, but since Shell Shocker, none of the kaiju have made land. We'd like to keep it that way." The set of her jaw hardened. "I lost family in the first wave."

"We all lost family in the first wave," AJ said quietly.

She glanced over her shoulder at him, and her expression softened a little. Slackening her pace, she sighed. "I guess so."

AJ drew up alongside her, biting his lip. "So…. I gotta ask."

"What's with the turtles?"

"Yeah." He shrugged at her. "I mean, it explains why they're still in the helmets with their visors down on their trading card, but…"

She smiled, even as she shook her head. "Not my story to tell." At his look, she just laughed. "Seriously. It's forbidden. After a broken telephone thing that happened around the base that had them being aliens or something, Takahashi made a rule that only he and the Training Marshal were allowed to explain it. So you'll get it from one of them, or not at all." Her smile faded, just a little. "All I can say is that when the first wave hit and the world set aside their differences to fight the kaiju, the guys put themselves on the line to help, knowing that it probably wouldn't end well for them. They did it anyway. The sooner you understand that, the sooner you'll understand _them_."

She paused at another doorway and ushered him inside. Obligingly, AJ followed her direction, and found himself in the middle of a large room with scuffed and duct-taped padding on the floor. A variety of weapons hung from the walls, and at the far end of the room someone had hung a scroll with something written on it in Japanese.

"Hmm. He's not here. Guess we're _really_ late." Angel blew a strand of hair out of her eyes. "He's gonna be mad. Dump your bag over there and wait here. I'll see if I can find him."

"Who?" AJ asked, turning to face her again, but she was already on her way out.

"Training Marshal," she called over her shoulder.

AJ's eyes widened. "What, I don't even get to put my stuff away first?"

"No point till we know which section you're stationed in!" her voice drifted back down the corridor. "Stay put!"

He stared after her in disbelief for a moment before he hurled his bag into a corner, whispers of the anger that had gotten him into so much trouble in and out of jail starting to eat at him. They'd given him a shot at hope with this program - a chance to make something worthwhile out of the mess that had become his life. And now that he'd actually made it through basic training, he was facing some kind of test? Typical. They probably had no intention of making him a Ranger at all; they were just looking for a reason to get another grunt on cleaning duty or something. Well, he'd show them. He'd show them all…

_"Hey!"_

AJ turned just in time to see a green fist flying toward his face. He may not have known what to do against… whatever it was that blue turtle had done before, but fists in his face? _That_ was familiar territory. He leaped back, catching the punch with a backswing and retaliating with one of his own. His attacker was fast – scary fast – and AJ had barely enough time to register the outraged eyes burning behind the red mask before he was struggling to survive the next volley.

"Dude—" he grunted as one of the punches connected. "What is your _problem_?"

"My _problem?" _the – AJ still faltered on the word – the _turtle_ spat. "My _problem_ is you deciding to clock my brother in the head with a wrench!"

"Well maybe your _brother_ ought to watch where he's going and not jump out at unsuspecting new guys!" AJ shouted back. Granted, he'd run into the other turtle while he'd been busy gawping at the Jaegers, but he was really ticked now – logic had left the building long ago.

"You—you—" The turtle's glare hardened. "That's it. You are going _down._"

"Bring it on, green boy," AJ said, bracing himself as he clenched his fists. And as angry as he was, a hint of a smile began to play around the corners of his mouth. Finally, after weeks of confusion and uncertainty, he was back in his happy place. _This _was what he was good at. And as he closed with the turtle in red, he let himself go, putting all his rage, and frustration, and, let's face it, _fear_, into the fight.

The turtle was good. AJ had to give him that. He was _really_ good. If the turtle had been using the fancy stuff his brother used, AJ would have been on the ground long ago, but it seemed like Red was just as mad as AJ was, and it was all fists and fury between them, each one giving as good as he got. Until, finally, the turtle proved to be just too good, and as he forced AJ, back, AJ felt himself tripping over the edge of the mat. That stumble would cost him dearly, he thought, as the turtle's fist filled his field of vision too fast for AJ to block it.

"_Yame!"_

The language was unfamiliar, but the authority in the voice behind him carried enough force that it left no question as to its meaning, and AJ froze despite himself. In a small miracle, so did the turtle, just before his fist met AJ's face, and the expression the turtle wore said clearly that they were both in deep trouble.

He turned, cringing, expecting that he was about to meet the mysterious Training Marshal in less-than-ideal circumstances. His heart sinking, he realized he'd probably just blown his one shot at being a Ranger….

And then all thought left his head entirely at the sight of the enormous rat towering over him.

It was too much. The transfer, and the turtles, and the fight, and now this? Overwhelmed by everything, unable to stop himself, AJ's eyes rolled back in his head, and he fell back into darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

_"But I didn't even—"_

_"Enough, Raphael! Go, find your brothers and bring them here. I will deal with you later."_

_"But—"_

_"Do not make me ask again."_

_"…hai, Sensei."_

AJ groaned, raising his hand to his head, wincing as the overhead lights sent spears of pain through his skull. Blinking, he turned toward the shadow looming over him, and was able to take in the face of the rat without fainting again. Then he saw what he'd missed before, and as he took in the Marshall's stars and medals on the giant rat's uniform and realized that _this_ was Training Marshal Hamato, he groaned again and suddenly wished that he was back to being blissfully unconscious.

"I'm getting sent back to jail, aren't I?"

The rat knelt next to him, regarding him evenly. "Are you injured?"

"Mostly my pride," AJ admitted.

"Then answer me this," Marshall Hamato said. "When you believed my son to be a kaiju, why did you attack him? Most people would have run."

"Because there were a whole bunch of innocent people aro—wait, your _son?"_

AJ buried his head in his hands. He still didn't have any clue what was going on, but one thing was clear - he'd blown it. He'd absolutely blown it. If he didn't end up back in jail, he'd be cleaning toilets for the rest of his life. No Jaeger. No fighting. Nothing.

"I see." Marshall Hamato raised a hand to stroke his beard thoughtfully. "Takahashi was right about you."

"I know, I—" AJ lowered his hands. "Wait, what?"

Hamato sighed. "I imagine that you have questions. I can answer them, but only if I can be assured that what you learn will not leave this station."

As the magnitude of what the Marshal was saying filtered through his haze of bewilderment, AJ pushed himself to his knees, staring up at the rat. "You're saying that if you can't trust me, I'm never leaving here again." Hamato said nothing in response, but inclined his head. Scrubbing his face with his hands, AJ let out his breath in a huff. "Please," he said quietly. "I'm so confused, I just…" He sighed. "Please. Tell me."

Hamato settled back, and AJ flopped into a cross-legged position. "Can we start with _how_?" AJ asked plaintively.

Folding his hands in his lap, Hamato nodded. "For most of the world, we have been at war with the Kaiju for over four years now. But for myself and my sons, the war began much earlier. " He let out a long breath. "What the world does not know is that the kaiju are not the enemy. Merely their servants. The creatures responsible for them have had their sights set on our world for much, much longer than that. Nineteen years ago, my sons and I were exposed to an earlier, unstable form of the toxin known today as Kaiju Blue. Its purpose was to aid the creatures native to the other side of the breach in their attempts to terraform our world to suit their own needs. The toxin had… unexpected side effects."

His eyes wide, AJ took in the Marshall's appearance fully for the first time. "It… it did that to you?"

He nodded. "I was not always as you see me now. I was human, once. My name was Hamato Yoshi."

"So….the turtles were your sons?"

"Not at first, no," he said, with a soft chuckle. "They were my pets. Fortunately for us all, they gained human intelligence when the Kaiju Blue fused their DNA with mine. For fifteen years, we lived in hiding beneath the streets of New York, until the year the creatures responsible for our mutation once again revealed themselves." He closed his eyes briefly, shadows of memories playing across his expression. "They call themselves the Kraang. My sons managed to fend them off for a year, but during that time, my sons encountered a creature guarding an underwater base of theirs in the East River that proved… most effective against them." His fists clenched. "We should have been forewarned by that, I suppose. But at the time, it just seemed to be another one of their plans. A challenge to be faced, but easily foiled."

AJ shook his head in disbelief. "You're saying that the turtles fought a kaiju _before_ the first wave?"

"Not quite a kaiju yet," said a soft voice behind him. AJ turned to see Blue… what had Angel called him? Leo… leaning against the doorframe. "That thing was just a baby compared to what eventually came through."

Hamato nodded. "Indeed. It was not until a year later that the Kraang learned how to turn the divide between two continental plates into a portal to their home dimension, and bring much larger creatures through the breach."

"It's called Dimension X," Leo said, and crossed the room to sit next to the Training Marshal - who was apparently also his father.

AJ rubbed his eyes as the headache began again. "Why have I never heard any of this?"

"Because nobody believed us," Leo said quietly.

He looked up at the turtle and his father, watching as the rat laid a soft hand on his son's shoulder. For the briefest of moments, AJ felt a pang at the gesture, at the easy affection between a father and son that he would have killed for, and there it was, between these two creatures who shouldn't have existed outside of his nightmares.

"When Trespasser attacked San Francisco, we knew that it would not be long before the kaiju spread throughout the oceans. My sons made the difficult decision to emerge from the shadows, to tell the authorities what they knew in the hope that they could save millions of lives."

"And so they put them in a Jaeger," AJ said, eyeing the Shell Shocker logo on Leo's flight jacket.

"No," Hamato said, too quietly. "They put them in cages. In laboratories. Convinced, as you were, that they were kaiju themselves." AJ flinched, feeling in that moment like he wanted nothing more than to sink through the floor. Hamato's grip tightened on his son's shoulder, and Leo's hand drifted up to cover his father's. After a moment, they both let go, but Hamato's voice was steadier as he continued. "After some…experimentation, it was determined that my sons were as native to this world as any other creature, and a decision was made to terminate their existence."

"Fortunately, we had a man on the inside."

The purple one – Donnie – had drifted back in with April, followed closely by the other two. "April's dad's a psychologist who spent some time as a guest of the Kraang."

April made a face at that. "The government was pretty interested in what he had to say, and when _he_ suggested that they try the guys in a Jaeger…"

"The rest was history," Raph finished bitterly. "We're not good enough to live with them, but we're good enough to die for them."

"Raphael," said Hamato, a note of caution in his voice.

"Hey, we haven't died yet," said the orange one. Mikey.

AJ looked at the insignia on Leo's jacket. A green shell with a lightning bolt superimposed over it, surrounded by a yellow circle. At the four compass points of the circle were small coloured dots – blue in the north, red in the east, orange in the south, and purple in the west. He'd stared at that insignia on the trading cards for years, and always wondered why _those_ particular colours had been chosen.

"Oh," AJ said, in a small voice.

"Yeah. Oh." Raph snorted. "Master Splinter, why are we wasting time on this goon? He tried to brain Leo."

"Yes, why _are_ we wasting time on my handpicked candidate, Hamato?"

Raph cringed as Takahashi's voice drifted through the doorway. Marshal Hamato just rose to his feet, tugging his blue uniform jacket back into place. "I see what you mean," was all he said.

Takahashi raised a brow at the other Marshal. "And?"

"There is great anger in him," Hamato said. "It clouds his mind and makes him careless and sloppy. But you were right." He folded his hands behind his back and looked down his muzzle at AJ. "I can work with anger."

AJ stared helplessly from one Marshal to the other. "What does that mean?"

Mikey let out a whoop of laughter. "It means _I'm_ not gonna get smacked around the most any more!" He bounded across the room, throwing an arm around AJ's neck. "Welcome back to basic training, dude. In about a week, you're gonna wish you were dead."

Raph gaped at him. "You are _kidding_ me."

"I am _not,_" Marshal Hamato snapped, and Raph fell silent again, though if looks could kill, the one he was sending AJ would have left him six feet under.

And then the world came to an end.

Throwing his hands over his ears, AJ stared at the flashing lights on the wall as the klaxons sounded throughout the station. Confused and disoriented, he looked to the others for guidance. He'd been through drills in the fundamental training sessions he'd been given before being sent here, but he didn't even know what his battlestation _was_, let alone how to get there.

The turtles, meanwhile, were on their feet, and the little guy was practically bouncing off the walls with barely-leashed energy.

"What gives?" Raph shouted. "The last one was only six weeks ago!"

"I _told_ you they were gonna start coming every six weeks!" Donnie shouted back.

Takahashi strode over to the wall and punched a button on the intercom. "Hernandez!"

"Sir," came Angel's voice, "the Kaiju made it past the Pacific and Arctic defenses, still clear of the Ten Mile Line. Kaiju signature has passed Newfoundland and appears to be headed straight for us. Estimated time to landfall is shrinking fast."

The Marshall turned, fixing AJ with a pointed look. "You're going to be a Ranger, kid, you'd better see what you're in for. Tag along and try to stay out of their way." He transferred his glare to the turtles as he punched back into the intercom. "Get Shell Shocker ready to drop."

Hamato pointed toward the door way, his face darkly serious. "Go!"

The turtles surged past AJ in a tide of green, April in the middle of them, and a scaled hand caught his arm and dragged him in their wake. And after a moment of disorientation, he was running, a path clearing for them as a synthetic female voice echoed through the halls, counting down to Shell Shocker's drop.

This was it. He was actually going to see the pilots in action. An actual Jaeger drop. Suddenly it was all terribly, terribly real, but though he knew he should be terrified, the energy in the group surrounding him was electric. It flowed through him, pulling him in their slipstream, and there was a freedom in the headlong rush down the hall that he hadn't felt since before his first stint in jail.

A shoulder caught him hard in the side and he staggered as Raph laughed, racing past him. "Try to keep up, goon boy!"

But the hand on his arm steadied him, and he found himself looking into Leo's eyes as he ran. "Thanks," he said. "Uh…sorry about the trying to kill you thing."

"You're not the first," Leo said, and let go of his arm, pulling ahead as Shell Shocker's crew raced into the prep room, the rest of their launch crew already waiting.

AJ hung back, not wanting to get in the way as the crew made the pilots ready, and he looked to Leo and Raph, waiting to see them in action. But as Leo tossed his jacket to Raph, AJ was astonished to see that it wasn't the turtle in red who was getting ready to don the second suit.

It was Mikey.

Both turtles stripped themselves quickly, making themselves ready to receive the streamlined circuitry suits whose artificial synapses would connect them to their Jaeger. AJ had a moment to note the thick metal rivets embedded into their shells just over their shoulders before the suits passed overtop, the rivets poking through precut holes in the circuitry suit as the other crew members began to fasten the sealed polycarbonate shell of the drivesuits' second layer into place. The expercienced crew completed this step in no time, and the outer armoured layer was added overtop, the various pieces screwed tightly into place.

Leo and Mikey exchanged a look, grinning as April and another crew member removed the spinal plates from their trays, special padding protecting the delicate neural connections, and the suits locked the spine plates into place. As that finished, Donnie and Raph were tugging the turtles thinking caps into place and snapping the seals on their brothers' helmets closed as they pulled them on overtop; Mikey was bouncing on his toes as he waited for the synaptic fluid to drain into the suit.

"Mikey," Donnie said, "remember what we talked about—"

"I know, I know," Mikey said impatiently as his faceplate cleared. "Let's _do this_!"

Raph just stood in front of Leo, placing a hand on either side of his helmet and butting his head against his brother's faceplate. "Bring him home safe, Chief."

"Always do," Leo said, and punched Raph lightly in the shoulder.

"Connections are clear," April called from the door to the Conn-Pod as Angel's voice on the intercom announced that the Marshals were on deck in the LOCCENT and the synthesized voice continued its countdown. "Go, guys, go!"

At her shouted command, Leo and Mikey broke free, racing toward the harnesses that were descending from the roof of the Conn Pod. As the pilots stepped into the motion rig, the foot bolts locked over their boots with jolt that AJ could feel through the deck, and he had a minute to process the strange, minimal back plates of the feedback cradle before the arms of the harness locked over the rivets in their shells and lifted them both into position. Donnie and April raced forward, cabling them into the interface drivers, and ran clear of the Pod as the arm extensors attached themselves to each suit gauntlet.

And then the door swung closed, Donnie and Raph locking the door into position and obscuring the Jaeger pilots from view. "Conn-Pod ready to drop," Donnie called. "Let's get to LOCCENT."

They were off and running again, AJ trailing behind, as the klaxons fell silent and the synthesized voice spoke into the relative quiet.

_Release for drop._

The thunder of the com pod's rapid descent shook the entire floor. As they pounded onto the misson control centre, AJ could hear Mikey's whoops over the intercom.

The turtles and April dispersed; Donnie immediately went to the holographic display at the front, near Marshal Hamato, punching something into the terminal. "Preparing to engage pilot-to-pilot protocol."

Keeping to the outside of the deck, away from the bulk of the chaos, AJ inched his way around the perimeter to the massive viewing window that dominated the control centre. With a small jolt of surprise, he noticed that though Donnie and April had their own stations, Raph had done the same as AJ, and was glaring at him from the other side of the window.

And then he had eyes for little else as Shell Shocker rolled from her docking station, her feet planted firmly on the massive tank bed that wheeled her toward the bay doors as the reactor turbine in her chest began to spin up into activation. The shell plating on the Jaeger's back gleamed in the lights of the bay, and for the first time, AJ understood why the hexagonal panels in the Conn-Pod stretched all the way around the pod, past the viewing window, in an echo of the masks her pilots had only taken off in order to don their helmets. Masks that Raphael now held clenched in his fist.

The bay doors finished retracting into the walls as Shell Shocker slid neatly onto the launch gantry.

"Ready to align, Marshals," Donnie announced.

"Kaiju signature still tracking in," said April, her gaze riveted on the map display before them. "It's now or never."

"Initiate P-to-P," Takahashi said.

_Neural handshake initiated,_ the AI announced. _Neural handshake in T-minus twenty… nineteen…_

The launch platform released, sending a cascading spray of seawater to wash over the decks. Shell Shocker sank to her knees, spray beating against her in waves of foam, as the countdown reached zero. On the displays throughout the deck, holographic images of the turtles' brains flickered to life as the Pons mechanism initiated the drift, and Donnie nodded in satisfaction. "Neural bridge is strong and holding," he announced.

_Right hemisphere….calibrated._

"C'mon Mikey…" Raph whispered.

_Left hemisphere….calibrated._

As the bay doors began to cycle closed, Shell Shocker moved, lifting her arms and dropping them in a pose that spoke of strength, and ferocity, and a world of pain to any kaiju unfortunate enough to cross its path.

"Serously?" he heard Raph murmur. "_That_'s the kamae you picked? Freaking showoffs. I bet that was Leo."

"Sir! Kaiju signature closing fast!" April called.

Suddenly, there was no more time for wonder. As AJ turned to the map display to watch the red mark of the kaiju signature closing in on the green that was Shell Shocker, all the trading cards, and action figures, and toys the kids played with in the streets meant nothing. This wasn't a game. This was real. And despite everything that had happened that day, AJ found his fists clenching and his breath catching in his throat as the turtle pilots guided their Jaeger toward the fight.

"Give 'em hell, guys," he said under his breath.

He was staring at the displays so hard, he didn't even notice the look Raph turned on him then.

And then the Kaiju struck.


	4. Chapter 4

_Hey guys! Some of you might have noticed some changes to previous chapters - I got the novelization of the movie, and I'm trying to bring my terminology in line with the official sources. I freely admit that the Shell Shocker Stats are a modified version of Gipsy Danger's from that book. Shell Shocker was a slightly earlier Mark III._

_Thank you guys for all your feedback (and huge hugs to azraelskeith and theninjathings for visualizing Shell Shocker's logo) . This remains way too much fun to write._

* * *

**Chapter 4**

"Kaiju engaged, sirs!" came April's shout, and AJ gave himself over, using the variety of HUDs, pilot cams, and helicopter feeds to piece together what was happening out in the ocean.

The kaiju circled around Shell Shocker, wake from its passing nearly swamping the Jaeger, but she held firm, her stance solid. In the Conn-Pod, Leo and Mikey bore twin expressions of rapt determination, all trace of joviality gone from the little turtle's face.

"Wait for it," Splinter murmured.

"Got a lock on the kaiju," said Angel, checking her readouts. "Category two. But it's huge. Codename: Bladefist."

"Stop _naming_ them!" Mikey's agonized protest squealed over the commlinks. "That's _my_ job!"

"We told you, no more names." Donnie snapped. "Not after the whole 'Pizzaface' fiasco." Nudging some of the readouts on his display, he frowned. "Stop thinking about it. You're phasing."

"Focus, Mikey," Leo said softly.

Screaming, the kaiju reared out of the water, and the source of its name became evident. It unfurled four well-muscled arms from its sides, dripping with water and slime; the hands on the ends of each arm, if they could be called hands at all, were tipped with long, gleaming claws the size of the Jaeger's forearm. AJ caught his breath, his fists clenching as Bladefist struck.

But Shell Shocker wasn't there anymore. Faster than he had thought a Jaeger could move, Shell Shocker had ducked out of the way, turning to deliver a kick to the middle of one of the legs that supported the massive body. The joint moved sideways, which was clearly not a direction that the limb was meant to bend, and Bladefist staggered. Shell Shocker moved again, its fist lashing out to make painful contact with the kaiju's face, and the crunch of the silicon bones was audible even over the Conn-Pod relays.

"Take that , you ugly excuse for a monster," Mikey crowed, and even the normally stoic Leo was grinning.

"Rear left arm!" April cried.

Not a second too soon, Shell Shocker's arm lashed out to block the reaping blow of the kaiju's blades. Immediately, the Jaeger disengaged and brought her other fist around, elbow rockets activating to power it into the kaiju. With another scream, the kaiju toppled and disappeared beneath the waves.

Mikey rocked back in his rig, punching a communications channel open. "Did we get it?"

"Too easy," Leo answered, his gaze intent on his HUD.

"I agree, Leonardo," said Marshal Hamato. "Be vigilant my sons. I believe that—"

"It's circling!" April grabbed her mic. "Guys, it's circling around behind you!"

AJ stared at her. That kind of thing took planning. But kaiju weren't that smart…

And yet, sure enough, a moment later, the kaiju erupted from the waves behind them. Had April not shouted her warning, it would have taken them by surprise, and the bladed fists would have closed on the Conn-Pod. As it was, Shell Shocker's left arm was in the way. The talons sank deep into the arm, and Mikey let out a scream of pain that made AJ's blood run cold.

"Mikey," Raphael gasped.

But the pilots were moving. In perfect unison, their right arms lifted, driving Shell Shocker's free fist into the kaiju. It screeched again and let go of the Jaeger, diving beneath the waves.

"Nnnngh," Mikey groaned. "Why does it have to hurt?"

"It minimizes your reaction time when the circuitry suit feeds back Jaeger damage as pain," Donnie supplied helpfully.

Mikey scowled. "You want I should come back there and minimize _your_ reaction time?"

"Focus, Mikey," Leo said. "You got this. Just breathe through it."

"I can't…. oh. Okay. I got this. I'm good. It doesn't even hurt anymore." Mikey looked over at his brother with a cocky grin. Opposite AJ, Raphael's head snapped toward Donnie with an indecipherable expression on his face. AJ followed his gaze to see that Donnie was frowning at the Pons display. AJ couldn't be sure, but it looked like there was more activity now in the right hemisphere than the left.

But he didn't have long to think about that as Mikey's question drifted over the commlink. "Where did that jerk go?"

April let out a sharp cry. "It's breaking toward the city!"

Takahashi's face took on the aspect of a looming storm, and he stepped toward the main mic. "Gentlemen, do _not_ let that thing breach the Miracle Mile."

"On it," Leo said. The brothers turned, their legs straining against the hydraulic mechanisms locking in their feet, and Shell Shocker began to move. Slowly at first, her lumbering steps grew quicker, more agile, until the two-hundred-eighty-foot machine was _racing_ through the waves toward the kaiju that broke the surface in periodic breaches as it moved toward the shore.

"Deploying weaponry," Leo said, one hand punching the command console as Mikey mirrored him on the other side.

From beneath the protective covers just above each hand, two massive lengths of chain unfurled themselves. The one on the right quickly doubled over, locking together into a gleaming, bladed sword edge. But on the left, nothing was happening. The chain continued to dangle loose, and AJ looked back at the figures scattered through LOCCENT. Why was nobody seeing this?

"There's something wrong with the sword on the left," he called out, unable to help himself any longer.

Marshal Hamato just looked at him, and there was something viciously proud lurking behind those deep brown eyes. "No," he said evenly. "There is not."

Bladefist breached again, and Shell Shocker _spun, _the chain on the left lashing out and wrapping around the kaiju's throat at precisely the right moment. As the Jaeger came down again, one foot landed on the chain, the weight of the mech's descent yanking the kaiju back toward the Jaeger. And the sword on the right came up to meet it. Striking hard, Shell Shocker drove the blade deep into the back of the kaiju's head, pinning it to the sea floor. The water around the blade smoked and steamed as the heated edge cauterized the wound, containing the kaiju's toxic blood.

"Confirmed kill," April announced, as the blip disappeared from her screens. "Bladefist is dead."

"Kaiju Blue contamination nominal," Angel added.

Around them, cheers erupted from the figures that had been slowly crowding into LOCCENT, and AJ was almost surprised to find his voice one of the loudest among them. The Marshals watched over the controlled chaos, indulging the necessary release of tension for a few minutes, before Takahashi stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"If I might remind you people, we have a damaged Jaeger returning. Get to your positions, everyone." His glare fell on AJ. "Rookie, tag along and observe, but don't get it anyone's way."

"Yes, sir," AJ said quietly.

A moment later, Raphael stormed past, shouldering AJ aside. He staggered, but Angel approached him before he could do anything, gesturing with an incline of her head. "Come on. I'll make sure you don't get into too much trouble. Just stay out of Raph's way. He gets really mad after drops sometimes. I figure it's best not to ask."

They headed out of the command centre in the flow of personnel, though Raph had run on ahead, with Donnie and April together close behind. "Can I ask what the deal is with those two?"

Angel snorted. "Techheads, both of them. Donnie's, like, a super-genius. He's made a whole bunch of tweaks to all our systems and we run better than the Shatterdomes on the Pacific that get all the funding. They're both Rangers too, but they work best in LOCCENT. Donnie's got a knack for keeping his brothers in the drift, and April…" she shrugged. "It's weird. She just, like, _knows_ what the kaiju are going to do sometimes. So Takahashi and Hamato keep them there."

He rubbed at a bruise on his shoulder. "And Raph?"

"Raph is… Raph," Angel said. "He's a Ranger, but mostly he helps out the Training Marshal. He's tough, and he'll put you through the ringer, but he cares, and you do get better when he works with you." Angel frowned at him. "Look…. Mikey and his brothers, they helped me out of a real tight spot just before the first wave. Since then…. They're like family. Anyone in a Shell Shocker crew jacket? They care about them a lot. So just… any preconceptions you might have? Get rid of them. They're good people. They deserve better than they've been given."

As they reached the docking level, the massive bay doors at the end of the Shatterdome began to open. The door klaxons were drowned out momentarily by the foghorn-like booming of the Jaeger's warning horn. AJ winced, clapping his hands over his ears, and looked at Angel. "I thought that was only supposed to be a warning thing."

"It is," she said, wincing and rubbing her head. "But Mikey…" She shrugged. "Is very Mikey sometimes."

It took some time for the Jaeger to fit itself into the massive gantry that pulled it back across the bay and into its docking station. The secondary gantry locked on to the Conn-Pod, and the cervical assembly released, allowing the gantry to lift the Conn-Pod back into position. April and the two turtles rushed forward, Raph heaving his weight against the heavy locking bolts, and hauled the door open. The orange and blue masks were wrapped tightly around Raphael's wrist now - he'd been winding them slowly around it over the course of the mission. AJ wasn't even sure he was aware he'd been doing it.

The pilots turned, smiling faces meeting their brothers as they began to disengage from the rigs.

"Did you _see_ that?" Mikey shouted. "We kicked kaiju butt! Were we awesome or were we—"

_Neural Handshake terminated,_ the synthesized voice announced.

"—awesomeeeeaaaahh, _why does it hurt again?"_ Mikey's right arm flew to cover his left, over the spot where Bladefist had damaged Shell Shocker. The crew rushed forward and several pairs of hands, Angel's included, supported the injured turtle as he limped from the pod, complaining vociferously along the way.

"Just take it easy, Mikey," Angel was soothing as they passed. "We'll get you to the infirmary and get something on that burn."

"Thanks, Angel," Mikey sighed dramatically, draping his uninjured arm over her shoulder. "You're the best. I knew saving your butt from the Purple Dragons was a good idea."

"Yeah, you're full of those," she said, a smile lurking around the corners of her mouth. "Come on, hero. I'll even buy you a pizza."

As the crowd disappeared down the corridor, headed for the infirmary, AJ looked back to offer his congratulations to Leo, and froze. The other pilot was gone, only the repair crews remaining behind in the Conn-Pod. He looked around in bewilderment, but Raph was gone, too, and AJ was pretty sure he hadn't gone with the others.

One of the crewmen caught AJ's expression and snickered. "Yeah, they do that. Better get used to it."

Bemused, AJ started down the corridor after the vanishing crew, but he hadn't taken more than a few steps before something gave him pause. He turned, looking back the other way, and quietly headed in that direction.

It wasn't long before he found where the other two turtles had gone. Leo was still in his drivesuit, though he'd removed his helmet, and Raph had him pinned up against one wall. The other turtle wasn't touching him, but the message behind the fist planted squarely next to Leo's head was clear enough. Leo's head was turned away, refusing to meet Raph's eyes, but Raph didn't seem to care. He wasn't yelling, but somehow the leashed anger in his voice was even worse. AJ stood there, frozen, aware he'd intruded on a moment that he shouldn't, but unable to look away.

"Dammit, Leo, _talk _to me!"

"There's nothing to talk about," Leo said. "You told me to bring him back safe. I did. What's the problem?"

"Bring him back safe, Leo, not take his pain on yourself. You can't keep shouldering that kind of neural load."

At that, Leo's head snapped around, finally meeting Raph's gaze, and AJ could feel the heat in it from where he stood.

"He's our baby brother. I'm not just gonna stand there and let him burn," Leo spat, shoving Raph's arm away. He attempted to push past his brother, but Raph was on him, slamming him back against the wall. The shell of the drivesuit met the wall with a crack that made AJ's back ache in sympathy. Leo strained against Raph's arm across his chest, but Raph wasn't budging.

"He's an adult now, for crying out loud!" Raph growled. "Let him grow up and take on his share of it. You don't always have to take everything on yourself."

"I'm the _leader_," Leo snapped. "It's my job—"

"Ugh, you are _so_ arrogant, you know that? You smug, self-satisfied _jerk_. You think that you need to be the martyr no matter what situation we're in, but I've got news for you, _bro_, you're not that _special!_ This is _exactly _like when—"

Raph broke off, stepping back like he'd been burned. As he did so, AJ could see the thin trail of blood running from one of Leo's nostrils, leaving small red splotches on the green breastplate of the drivesuit.

"Leo—" Raph breathed.

With a sudden surge of strength, Leo shoved his brother away. "You've made your feelings pretty clear," he said quietly, wiping away the blood with the back of his hand. "Mikey needs you. I'll be fine."

Turning his back on Raphael, Leo walked away down the corridor, never once looking back. Raph watched him go, limbs stiff with tension, but he didn't pursue him. Then, all at once, he let out a strangled cry and drew back his fist, slamming it against the concrete wall of the corridor. Again and again he let loose, until the wall and the white tape on his fingers was stained faintly red. Only then did he turn, sliding down the wall and drawing his knees up to his chest, burying his head against them.

In that moment, AJ knew that he'd seen too much. Quietly, without making a sound, he backed away and slipped back down the corridor, leaving the mutant to deal with his demons on his own.

* * *

**PAN-PACIFIC DEFENSE CORPS**

**COMBAT ASSET DOSSIER – JAEGER**

**NAME: **Shell Shocker

* * *

**GENERATION: **Mark III

* * *

**DATE OF SERVICE: **December 27, 2016

* * *

**DATE OF TERMINATION: **n/a

* * *

**RANGER TEAM ASSIGNED**

Leonardo Hamato, Michelangelo Hamato

Auxiliary pilots: Donatello Hamato, Raphael Hamato, April O'Neil

Current base of Operations: New York Shatterdome

* * *

**MISSION HISTORY**

Shell Shocker is credited with three kaiju kills: NY-09 "Bobblehead," New York, December 27, 2016; NY-12 "Pizzaface," New York, May 31, 2017; NY-15 "Kurokappa," Arctic Ocean, October 12, 2017.

**OPERATING SYSTEM**

BLPK 4.1 with liquid circuitry neural pathways

**POWER SYSTEM**

Nuclear vortex turbine

**ARMAMENTS**

I-15 particle dispersal canon, biology aware plasma weapon, forearm mounted (retractable)

S-11 dark matter pulse launcher (internal mount)

CN-03 chain sword, forearm mounted (retractable)

* * *

**NOTES**

Improved reactor shielding installed at the insistence of Donatello Hamato pre-rollout. Despite these precautions, all pilots, primary and auxiliary, are required to maintain a preventative daily dose of Metharocin for the duration of their service in the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps.

Pilots Leonardo Hamato and Michelangelo Hamato are reported to exhibit signs of ghost-drifting. Internal monitoring is strongly recommended.


	5. Chapter 5

_Because some dear friends are back and because I'm in the right kind of mood, I'm posting this now. Happy birthday a little early, Skits! _

* * *

**Chapter 5**

The routine that AJ found himself falling into over the next few weeks was the most grueling thing he'd ever done in his life. He ended each day in more pain than any day he'd ever spent in prison. But it was, at least, routine.

It began at 5 am, training with Marshal Hamato before the other Rangers trickled in. The Training Marshal was calm, and patient, and absolutely brutal as he mopped the floor with AJ. Oh, AJ had been cocky for the first few minutes on day one, when Hamato had stood before him and asked AJ to show him his stuff. His bravado had lasted exactly six seconds, which was how long it had taken for AJ to charge across the mat at Hamato, whereupon the Marshal effortlessly sidestepped the attack, did _something_ with his tail, and AJ ended up flat on his back with the wind knocked out of him. That had been the closest he'd ever gotten to Hamato, and AJ was pretty sure he'd only gotten _that_ close because the rat was humouring him.

He'd bemoaned it to Angel later, as they sat together in the mess hall, but she'd only laughed and punched him in the arm. "That's because he's a ninja, dumbass."

"What, seriously?" AJ asked.

Angel nodded. "The real deal. So are all the current Rangers." She smiled fondly over at the table where the four turtles and April sat, along with a few techs in Shell Shocker crew jackets. She was over there with them, often as not, though AJ was quietly grateful for the days she took pity on him and joined him for a meal or two – it made his days a lot less lonely. Seemed like most of the base hadn't forgiven him yet for the whole trying-to-kill-Leo thing.

Funnily enough, the only person who really didn't seem to mind it was Leo, although Mikey tended to follow his brother's lead. As long as Leo initiated contact, usually just saying hello, or giving AJ gentle guidance with whatever task he happened to be messing up at the moment, Mikey was almost always right behind with a prank or a teasing remark. But teasing was a language AJ spoke fluently, and he didn't mind it so much. Plus, it reminded him that he wasn't invisible.

When he wasn't in physical training, there was a lot of memorization and studying to do in preparation for his other Ranger duties, which usually fell to April. She'd been outright hostile at first, but over the weeks, she'd thawed to just a mild disdain. Sometimes he could even goad a smile out of her.

They sat in Shell Shocker's bay to do their work, which the team had outfitted for their own comfort long before AJ had joined them. While AJ and April poured over Jaeger schematics and kaiju profiles on April's portable holo display, the boys and Angel were busy playing a game of basketball that seemed to have no rules other than "get the ball in the hoop and don't let anybody else touch it, preferably with ninja moves involved." Which made perfect sense to AJ.

April had queued up the display with a chronological series of kaiju events, starting with footage of Trespasser's attack on San Francisco nearly five years ago. He'd tried to listen – he honestly had – but the game was too distracting. Mikey had taken pity on Angel fairly quickly and teamed up with her, and Donnie had fallen in on that side not long after, which pitted the three of them against Leo and Raph. And the two older brothers were decimating the other three.

Leo and Raph moved like nothing he'd ever seen before. The closest comparison he could come up with was members of an Olympic hockey team. It was like Leo just _knew_ where Raph was going to be needed most, and the hotheaded bruiser was so attuned to his older brother that a turn of Leo's body, a twitch of his hand - hell, even a _look_ sometimes – sent Raph into position to either take the ball or put one of the younger ones on the ground. Gone was the brutal punching that Raph had turned on AJ, too. He was still stronger, blockier, and far more of a powerhouse than any of the others, favouring strength over finesse, but he moved with the same eerie grace that all of the others did. At one point, Mikey managed to entangle Raph in one of the dangling chains meant to hold the engine block of one of Shell Shocker's muscle strands when it needed maintenance. As AJ watched, Raph disentangled himself, sent Mikey to the mats, threw Angel into Donnie - who was in the perfect place to catch her because a kick from Leo had just sent him there - and tossed the ball to Leo in a matter of seconds. As the ball went into the basket and Leo landed, Leo's hand was already in place to meet Raph's upraised one.

AJ could only stare. He'd never seen that kind of teamwork before. Which begged one obvious and glaring question.

Before he could ask it, a smack upside his head brought his attention back to April. "Focus, AJ," she snapped at him.

He glared at her, rubbing the back of his head. "I was just—"

"I know," she said, and gave a soft sigh. "I can see it in your face. Just… don't ask."

"But—" AJ's protest was cut off as the basketball collided with his temple. Cursing, he looked over at the turtles. Mikey, Donnie, and Angel looked suitably horrified, Leo just exasperated as he covered his eyes with his hand, and Raph...

"Heads up," the turtle said, crossing his arms with a smug grin on his face.

AJ pitched the ball back at Raphael, hoping to cause at least some damage, but the creep just caught the ball easily and tossed it toward Leo. Muttering under his breath, AJ turned back to April's holo display, and scowled at the look on her face. "I _hate_ that guy."

"That guy is my brother," she reminded him, the corner of her mouth twitching.

"Well, you're brother's a jerk." His scowl deepened. "Don't you _dare_ laugh."

"Wouldn't dream of it," she said, fighting back a giggle.

"You laugh and you'll have to have dinner with me to make up for it," he said, a smile taking place of his dark expression. It never worked, but he figured it was worth a shot.

She let out a huff of air, shaking her head as she keyed up the next kaiju on her display. "Raph's right. You really are a goon."

But unlike the other times he'd asked, she hadn't outright said no. Grinning, he focused his attention on the hologram and tried his hardest to actually pay attention this time.

* * *

Yamarashi was the next kaiju to come through the Breach, and it headed straight for Los Angeles. A Mark-3 called Gipsy Danger was deployed to fight it after the first Jaeger sent after the kaiju went down. More than half the Shatterdome personnel gathered in the Jaeger bay to watch the live feed on the launch bay's massive holoscreen, and nobody was more excited than Mikey. He could barely contain himself as Gipsy Danger went toe-to-toe with the kaiju, delivering his own brand of colourful play-by-play as they watched the battle unfold.

"Oh, man, right in the _face_! That's gotta hurt!" Mikey's grin was almost feral as Gipsy Danger grabbed the kaiju's head and brought it down on the Jaeger's upraised knee. "Oooh! That's gonna leave a mark! Man, the Beckets are _awesome_!"

"They're not bad," Leo conceded from his vantage point atop Shell Shocker's foot. "More street fighter than ninja, but they've got the arrogant swagger down pat."

"Nothing wrong with street fighter," said Raph. He leaned against an "EXTREME CRUSH HAZARD" warning sign, which depicted a tiny stick man about to be squished by a Jaeger's massive foot and implored its reader to use caution and obey signals inside the bay. "Gets the job done." He folded his arms and nodded at the screen. "See?"

The assembled throng watched in awe as the Jaeger lured the kaiju into the port lands, finally tangling a cargo crane wire around the kaiju's neck and using it to behead the monster.

Mikey squealed out loud as Gipsy Danger's plasma cannon cauterized the bleeding wound to minimize the kaiju blue contamination, though the sound was almost lost beneath the cheering of the Shatterdome personnel. "They have a _plasma cannon_! Donnie, I want a plasma cannon!" Mikey bounded over to his brother, practically hanging off his neck. "Make me a plasma cannon!"

Donnie cast him an annoyed look as April attempted not to laugh. "Mikey, I made you a cauterizing chain sword-slash-kusarigama."

"And now I want a plasma cannon!"

Rolling his eyes, Donnie sighed in defeat. "Fine! I'll make you a plasma cannon."

"Yes!" Mikey grabbed Donnie's face between his hands and planted a sloppy kiss on his cheek. "You're the best, Donnie!"

"I know," Donnie muttered.

Laughing, April slipped her arm through Donnie's. "Come on. Tendo owes me a favour. I'll get on the line with him and see if we can get Gipsy Danger's weaponry schematics."

"And _we_ ought to get back to training," Leo said, sliding down Shell Shocker's foot.

"Awww, yeah!" Raph laughed, pounding his fist into his hand. "Back to beating the new guy with a stick."

AJ flinched. "I thought I was supposed to be getting martial arts training with a hanbō."

"You are," said Raph. "I hit you with the stick, it's incentive to get better."

"But—"

Before AJ could finish his hapless protest, a pulsing tone began to echo throughout the launch bay as the AI's smooth voice announced, '_Shell Shocker, prepare for deployment.'_

Automatically, AJ looked to Leo for explanation. The tone echoing through the base was annoying, but it wasn't the driving, urgent klaxon of a kaiju attack, either. And the Breach had just spat out Yamarashi; there was no way another kaiju was coming through this soon.

"Here we go!" Mikey crowed, darting for the staging area.

Shaking his head, Leo followed at a more sedate pace, motioning for AJ to follow. "If it's a nice day and there's lots of daylight left, Command likes to have us parade the Jaegers through the streets after anybody successfully defends against a kaiju. Good for morale, or something."

"Reminds people what their tax dollars and rationing are going toward," Raph added.

Leo gave Raph a look. "It's nice to be reminded that a Jaeger is only as good as her pilots," he continued, and shoved AJ ahead of him. "Come on. It's good practice assembling the drivesuit without the whole 'imminent danger of death' pressure of a combat drop."

"He gets Mikey," Raph said. "Mikey's squirmy."

"Good idea," Leo said, smirking at AJ. "If you can get Mikey into a drivesuit when he's hyper, you can assemble a drivesuit under any conditions." He tugged off his mask, placing it into Raph's outstretched hand. AJ raised a brow at that, but refrained from commenting.

True to their word, the turtles instructed Shell Shocker's ground crew to let AJ take point on suiting Mikey up, and AJ practically had to sit on him to get him into the drivesuit. The circuitry suit, being one close-fitting piece, was by far the worst, though at least it gave AJ a closer look at the rivets in Mikey's shell. The holes ran clear through the bone just above each shoulder, reinforced with what looked like surgical steel. Part of him wanted to ask about them, but he was pretty focused on keeping himself from giving into the temptation of knocking Mikey out just so that the turtle would hold still for five freaking seconds. By the time he thought about it again, the Conn-pod was on its way to Shell Shocker, and he sure as hell wasn't about to ask Raph. The remaining turtle, who now held both of his brothers' masks, turned and walked out of the room, shoulder-checking AJ into a wall as he passed.

"I hate that guy," AJ muttered under his breath, and he stalked after Raph as the assembled crew members snickered. He followed at a distance, heading toward LOCCENT to see what Shell Shocker was up to as she left the base.

Donnie and April were already there, arguing about plasma drive assemblies with each other and some guy in suspenders and a bowtie on their holodisplay. Angel seemed to be fielding most of the Shell Shocker comm chatter as she bickered with the turtles about the best route to take to get to the impromptu parade. A few newsfeeds popping up around the command centre showed that crowds were already assembling along the streets.

"I'm telling you," Angel insisted. "Last time you went through Battery Park, you caused tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage. Take Bleecker."

"Are you crazy?" Leo said over the commlink. "You have any idea how many flagpoles we knock down on Bleecker? We're taking Canal to Bowery."

AJ tucked himself into a corner, out of the way and on the far side of the room from Raph, watching the surreal argument unfold as the team figured out the best way to maneuver a giant robot through the streets of New York City. "Things you never expected to hear," he murmured.

"Tell me about it."

"Sir." AJ nodded deferentially to Marshal Hamato as the rat appeared next to him. At least the weeks of training had gotten him to stop jumping out of his skin every time the Training Marshal did the ninja thing.

Eventually, the turtles and Angel managed to agree on a clear path to the parade route, and everyone in the LOCCENT settled in to watch the newsfeeds as Shell Shocker paraded past her adoring fans to Times Square. They brought the Jaeger to a halt and exited through the emergency hatch at the top of the Conn-pod, and set the crowds screaming as they slid and leaped down the Jaeger's limbs until they touched ground on the platform where their interviewer waited.

Raph and Donnie watched the display with varying degrees of irritation, but April just looked amused. "Showoffs!" she called over the commlink, answered by laughter from Leo and Mikey over their helmet relays.

"Okay, _how_ did they learn to do that?" AJ wondered aloud.

"Running the rooftops of the city," Hamato answered quietly. AJ's eyes widened a little, and he resolved to stop asking stupid questions when the Marshal could hear him.

The turtles settled in to the chairs provided for them as the interviewer began to gush. The reporter tried to persuade them to remove their helmets, but they steadfastly refused. "Ruins the mystery," Mikey answered smoothly, to the raucous approval of the ladies in the crowd, if the answering screams were anything to judge by. After the usual standards like "What's it like piloting a Jaeger?", and Leo and Mikey's analysis of the Yamarashi attack, the interviewer turned the mic over to members of the crowd. Which was when things got _really _interesting.

Mikey was the obvious the favourite of most of the teenage girls, many of whom had clearly constructed elaborate fantasies to explain why the guys never raised their mirrored visors during interviews, and Mikey fielded them all with surprising sweetness and tact, despite Angel's scathing commentary over the private commlink.

But it was Leo's questions that AJ found the most unusual. AJ raised a brow as a nervous girl in the costume uniform and teal wig appeared on the screen, until April caught the look and called over to him, "it got out during the last interview that Leo loves Space Heroes. The Spaceniks went nuts for it."

AJ couldn't hold back a burst of laughter. "That corny old show?"

"Spacedorks unite," Raph said.

The girl took the microphone in a shaking hand, brushing teal hair out of her eyes with the other. "Um… Leo, I just wanted to say… if you and I were trapped in a cave together like Crankshaw and Virtue, I would _totally _tell you my real name."

Donnie and Raph exploded into riotous laughter, falling over each other as April glared and smacked them. "Stop it," she hissed. "That was sweet!"

Meanwhile, AJ grinned as he watched the normally unflappable Leo stammer over a response, assuring the trembling Spacenik that if he was trapped in a cave with her and they were about to run out of air, he would certainly take off his helmet and show her his face – a response that set Donnie and Raph off again, bad enough that Angel got in on the smacking.

* * *

One of the unexpected side effects of the kaiju war was the unreliability of e-mail. With submarine telecom cables being snapped on a regular basis by Jaeger feet, and satellite communication channels prioritized by government and PPDC, snail mail had made a surprising comeback. And as it turned out, Leo and Mikey got a ton of it. Especially after they made tv appearances. AJ, in his role as Shatterdome flunky, found himself waylaid in a corridor by Takahashi, who dumped two massive bundles on him and told him to deliver it to the extremely popular Rangers.

Bemused, AJ stared at the bundles of envelopes as he made his way down the corridor to the officers' quarters. Leo's and Mikey's rooms weren't far from his, but he was surprised to see Leo's door ajar as he approached – Leo tended to guard his privacy. AJ approached the open door cautiously, but it became apparent very quickly that Leo wasn't alone.

He wasn't wearing his uniform. Aside from his dog tags, he wore only the leather gear that he and his brothers wore while training sometimes. He sat on his bed, his hands in his lap as he worried at the tape around his fingers, his gaze downcast. April sat next to him, a hand on his shoulder and a worried expression on her face.

"Come on," she said, shaking his shoulder gently. "You know they mean well."

"Oh, sure," he said softly. "It's not that. It's just... I've wanted to be a hero like Captain Ryan my whole life. And now I _am,_ and everybody knows it...but I can't ever show my face. Ever. If I was ever _actually_ trapped in that cave with that girl and took off my helmet..."

Sighing, April wrapped her arms around Leo, raising herself up on her knees so that she could kiss the top of his head. "You're _my_ hero," she said, just a little fiercely. "With or without the stupid helmet." Leo said nothing in response, but one of his arms slipped around her waist, and he closed his eyes, leaning his head against her chest.

April's gaze drifted across the top of Leo's head and met AJ's. He held up the package of letters and laid it just inside the door, and April nodded imperceptibly, smiling a little in thanks as AJ reached out and tugged the door closed.

He stared at the closed door for a moment longer. Rangers were rock stars; it was common to fantasize about what you'd do if you had that kind of fame and adoration. He'd never considered what it would feel like to know that the single act of taking off your helmet had the potential to turn all that love into hate. He wanted to say that the world was better than that, and would love the turtles anyway for all they'd done to protect the city...but he'd spent too long living in the world. He knew better. At least Leo had a big sister like April to look out for him. A guy could certainly do a lot worse than having a girl like April in his life...

Shaking himself, he moved toward the door across the hall. The throbbing bass was audible from where AJ stood, getting louder as he approached, and knocking yielded no response. It wasn't until AJ hauled back and started kicking the door that the music dropped enough for him to be able to yell, "mail call!"

Immediately, the door swung open and a scaled hand yanked him inside. Mikey was also out of uniform, dancing around the room in his own leather gear, and he kicked the door shut behind AJ. "Dude, did you see me? They_ loved_ me out there! Is that stuff from my legions of adoring fans?"

From anyone else, it would have been obnoxious. But Mikey was just so earnestly excited about it as he launched himself onto his bed, bouncing cross-legged in place and looking expectantly up at AJ, that AJ couldn't bring himself to be mad.

"Yeah," AJ said, holding up the package. "Anywhere in particular you want me to leave it?"

"You wanna help me go through it?" Mikey asked, scooting over on the bed. "Angel usually does it. She won't let me read the love letters from anyone older than twelve."

AJ stifled a snort of laughter as he dropped down on the edge of the bed, tugging the elastic off the stack of envelopes. "Seriously? What is with you two?"

Mikey just grinned. "She was the first human friend I made all by myself. We helped her out of a tight spot, and the guys just wanted to leave and never see her again, but I thought different." He hooked a thumb into his belt. "Called it right, too. She's, like, three years younger than me, but she likes to pretend she's a lot older, and she's gotten it into her head that she needs to protect me from my fangirls."

"She's probably right," AJ said as he scanned the contents of one letter with mild shock. He'd thought he'd heard _everything_ in jail. Apparently, he hadn't.

Mikey rolled his eyes. "If it's one of _those_, just make a pile for it. Angel can go over it later and tell me which ones are safe for my delicate constitution." He patted the blanket in front of him. "The safe pile can go here. Bring it on, dude. My public awaits!"

Shaking his head, AJ stuck another letter on the unsafe pile. "Not that one."

"What can I say?" Mikey stretched, lacing his hands together behind his head. "Ladies love the Mikeynator."

"Do me a favour and never ever call yourself that again," said AJ, sticking a letter from an eight-year-old boy into the safe pile, which Mikey grabbed with enthusiasm.

"It's the scars," Mikey said, flexing his free arm. "Chicks dig scars, right?"

AJ eyed the healing burn from the circuitry suit feedback, which dappled Mikey's arm like a strangely technological tattoo. He slowly placed another letter onto the safe pile, thinking about it for a moment before asking, hesitantly, "did you know that Leo's taking the neural load from you when you're hurt?"

Still scanning the letter, Mikey snorted. "I'm in the dude's head. There's not much about him that I _don't_ know."

Taken aback, AJ blinked. He'd expected a lot more of a reaction than that. He set another letter on the safe pile, frowning a little. "Doesn't it bug you?"

"Course it bugs me," Mikey said, setting the letter he was reading aside and picking up another. "Why wouldn't it?"

"Oh." AJ sorted a few more letters. "Raph seems to think you don't know."

"First of all, what my brother doesn't know could fill a book. Second..." Mikey paused, looking over the top of his letter. "Sometimes my brothers – _all_ my brothers – forget that I'm twenty years old and that I've spent the last five years on the front line of a war. Sometimes, I let them keep forgetting that, because it helps them function when they have someone to take care of. Drives me crazy sometimes, too. But like I said, I'm in Leo's head. What Raph doesn't think about is that maybe I know why Leo feels like he _needs_ to take the pain from me. And that maybe _not _letting him do it is worse for him in the long run."

He picked up another letter off the bed, and his eyes lit up. "Oh, sweet! Check this out! This girl sent me a drawing of herself fighting kaiju with me!" He squinted at it, laughing a little. "Sheesh. I'm Japanese-American - why do they always make me blond? Her superpowers are pretty wicked, though." He waved the drawing at AJ. The little girl in the crayon drawing was flying around a giant, blond human boy who was vigorously attacking a kaiju. The young artist had also scribbled two thick red lines from her face to the kaiju's head.

"The laser vision is a nice touch," AJ said.

"I know, right?" Mikey bounded to his feet, grabbing a roll of tape from the small standard-issue desk shoved into a corner of the room. "This one goes on the wall!"

Glancing around the room, AJ took in the dozens upon dozens of drawings and letters papering the wall like a massive collage. Almost every one, he noted, was done in the loose, looping scrawls of young kids. Along one of the walls, a series of shelves sported an impressive collection of action figures. Sorting the last letters into the safe and unsafe piles, AJ pushed himself off the bed and wandered over.

"Pretty sweet, huh?"

Mikey's voice came from above, and AJ glanced up to see him in a full split across two parallel pipes that ran along the ceiling as he taped the girl's drawing to one of the few empty spaces overhead. That accomplished, he dropped down next to AJ and reached past him. "Check it out! This is me and Leo!" Holding one of the green-suited action figures in each hand, he put on a deeper voice as he moved the Leo figure. "Be serious and focus Mikey! The fate of the world is at stake!" In his normal voice, he added, "the helmets come off these ones though – they said they couldn't make them permanent because they were working off a variant of the same mold they used for all the others." He plucked the helmet off the Mikey figure and showed it to AJ. "At least they got a Japanese dude's face to go underneath this one though!"

AJ cast an appreciative glance over the collection. "I stuck to trading cards mostly – they didn't go missing as often in jail. But this looks pretty sweet."

"I got 'em all!" Mikey said proudly, reaching for the kaiju figures on the shelf above. "Look, here's Trespasser, and here's Scissure. Oooh, and Pizzaface!" He grabbed the Pizzaface figure, which did appear to have a face full of boils. "That was before they let the Marianas monitors name everything. I liked naming stuff. Leo and I took him down pretty fast." He picked up the massive Shell Shocker toy on the top shelf and mimed a kick at the kaiju.

AJ picked up Trespasser's model, running a finger over the iconic axe shape on its head that had become omnipresent on PPDC propaganda posters. "Doesn't it bug you? That people make toys out of things that you had to kill? Things that almost killed you?"

"Naw." Mikey patted AJ's shoulder. "It's not their fault the Kraang make 'em come here and try to squash us. We just do what we need to do to stop 'em."

There was a quiet beeping from a shell-shaped device sitting half-buried beneath comic books on the desk. Mikey wandered over, pressed a button on it to stop the noise, and opened a tin sitting next to it, swallowing one of the pills within before snapping it closed. He looked down at the Pizzaface action figure in his hand and sighed. "Now I want pizza." Glancing at AJ, he stuck the action figure back on the shelf and gestured toward the door with a jerk of his head. "I'm gonna go to the mess hall and see if Murakami-san's still working. Wanna come?"

Still reeling a little, AJ stared at the turtle. He'd been so sure he'd had Mikey pegged, and in the course of about ten minutes, he'd just turned everything AJ thought he knew about the turtles, about Rangers, and about kaiju on its head. As he stared into the open invitation he saw in Mikey's big blue eyes, he couldn't help smiling in return. "Sure. I got time for pizza."

"Dude, there's _always_ time for pizza." Mikey grabbed his arm and dragged him from the room. And as AJ drifted along in Michelangelo's wake, listening to a constant barrage of chatter about the mess hall chef and something about pizza gyoza, AJ couldn't help wondering what else he'd always been wrong about.


	6. Chapter 6

_If you're curious about the gala dresses in this chapter, check out tumblr. April's dress is on there, and the amazingly talented fivefootoh designed Angel's. Thank you to everyone who's responded so favourably to this story. It remains stupid amounts of fun to write._

* * *

**Chapter 6**

"So you see how the style is different in this clip? It's a lot less spontaneous, but there's more…. what's the word?"

"Flow," Donnie said from his seat next to the wall. He didn't even bother looking up, just continued fiddling with the thing in his hands - AJ thought it was part of the control mechanisms for a Jaeger muscle block - a look of intense concentration on his face and his tongue protruding from the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah, that's it," said April. "Flow. You see it?"

AJ frowned at the holoscreen, squinting as if that would help somehow. "Uhhhhh..."

"Oh, for the love of..._seriously?_" April glared at him. "It's _completely _different from when it was Leo and Mikey piloting!"

The heat in the look she gave him was almost, _almost_ worse than the ones his mother used to give him. "Oh, oh _sure_. Totally different. So this footage is Leo and Donnie-"

"Leo and _me!_" April picked up the weird fan on the floor next to her and whacked him with it, which hurt a _lot _more than he was expecting.

"Ow! Geez, what is that thing made of?"

"Iron," she said. "Seriously, AJ, you need to concentrate. This is important stuff here. This was the footage from when Mikey sprained his ankle and Leo and I had to run the simulation."

"I still say I would have made it if Raph's fat head hadn't been in the way," Mikey put in from the far side of the Kwoon - thought the resident Rangers tended to call it the 'dojo' more often than not. He and Leo were in the middle of sparring, and AJ blamed half of his inability to concentrate on them. He was trying to pay attention to April's displays, but watching Leo and Mikey was so much more interesting.

"Hey!" Raph snapped. "You were the one who got the bright idea into your head to jump from the Conn-pod. Don't go blaming me because you were an idiot and didn't look to see if I was standing at the bottom _where I was supposed to be._"

"Pssh." Mikey dropped, effortlessly ducking Leo's swing of the hanbō. "You have no flare for the dramatic."

He was looking at Raph when he said it. There was no way he could have seen Leo coming up behind him and bringing the hanbō down on his head. But at exactly the right moment, Mikey's hand shot up, blocking the blow with his own weapon. Only then did he disengage, rolling again to meet Leo's attack.

Watching the two of them was in some ways like watching Leo and Raph during that basketball game… and in some ways, entirely different. Leo and Mikey moved like they were two hands on the same body, one beginning a move and the other finishing it. Where Leo and Raph moved like two complementary cogs in a well-oiled machine, Leo and Mikey flowed like two streams of water coming together.

AJ yelped as April hit him with her fan again. "I'm focusing, I'm focusing! Jeesh." He looked at the new footage on her display. "That one's….. You and Mikey?"

"Leo and Donnie," April sighed. "Parade during Mikey's sprained ankle." She keyed up another recording. "Okay, you _have_ to be able to get this one."

Tilting his head, AJ watched Shell Shocker engage another Jaeger - which he should have been able to identify at this point, but he wasn't going to admit that he had no idea which one it was - and proceed to wail on the hapless Mark-2 with unrelenting brute force. "Okay," he said. "Blunt, rough, and ugly? That's gotta be Raph."

Another blow landed across AJ's shoulders, but it wasn't from April's fan this time. Letting out a yelp, he looked up into Raph's stormy expression as Mikey laughed from behind his brother.

"Yup," Mikey crowed. "Me and Raph had to go take on Solar Prophet when Leo was…" he glanced at his brother. "Ummm… sick."

But AJ wasn't paying attention to Mikey or April anymore. He struggled to his feet, glowering at Raph. "What is your _problem_, man?"

"Oh, really? That 'ugly' crack and you're seriously going to ask me that?" Raph tossed the hanbō he was holding aside and balled his fists. "Bring it on, goon boy!"

"Guys-" Leo began, but he wasn't fast enough. Raph and AJ launched themselves at each other, meeting in a flurry of fists and kicking, and AJ was fairly certain that Raph attempted to bite him a couple of times. Mikey cheered them on as they tussled together on the ground, while Leo and Donnie just sat on the sidelines in resolute defeat. April was busy looking for a pitcher of water to throw on them when a resonant shout brought everything in the room to a halt.

"_Rangers!_"

Cringing, AJ reluctantly let go of the tails of Raph's mask and looked up to meet Takahashi's stern glower. Hamato stood behind him, one hand over his face as he shook his head in resigned embarrassment. "Sirs," AJ said meekly.

Takahashi glanced over at Hamato. "Pawn to queen's bishop," he said. "I'm afraid the rest will have to wait until I've dealt with these two."

Hamato lowered his hand to regard the brawlers. "Are you certain? I have a rather large supply of suitable punishments."

"No, you did the last ones," Takahashi sighed. "It's my turn."

"Very well." Hamato gestured at the four who weren't about to be condemned. "Come. You four have preparations of your own to make."

The other three turtles and April filed from the room with varying expressions of sympathy and regret on their faces, though AJ was fairly certain they were more for Raph than for him. Splinter left last, with a quiet question in Japanese. Takahashi answered tersely, and from the way Raph almost disappeared into his shell, AJ could guess that whatever it was, it wasn't good.

"Now then," Takahashi said slowly, folding his hands behind his back. "How can I make you miserable for the next several hours, hmmm?"

* * *

Pain. AJ had known pain. Getting checked by the biggest bruiser in school during peewee hockey. Falling off his bike at top speed and losing all the skin from his left leg. Getting the snot pounded out of him during his first couple stints in jail, before he'd learned how to fight back. But nothing, _nothing_ had ever felt like the pain of being forced to scrub the Shatterdome floors from one end of the base to the other.

Well, _half_ the base. Takahashi had started Raph on the other end and said something poetic about learning to meet each other halfway. But AJ was sure he'd done more than half already, and Raph was nowhere to be seen. Probably slacking off and letting AJ do all the work, the stupid jerk. Grunting, he scrubbed at a particularly stubborn spot with his mop. The hall outside the officers' quarters was a mess; the bit in front of Mikey's room in particular.

"Why is it sticky?" he muttered, redoubling his efforts.

Before he could permanently scar himself by thinking too hard about that, Leo's door swung open and all three of the other turtles emerged, clad in their drivesuits with the mirrored visors down.

"AJ, dude!" Mikey exclaimed, clapping him on the back; the force of the drivesuit made it feel more like a blow from a hammer than a friendly pat. "Sorry about the mopping. Sucks, dude."

"Yeah," AJ wheezed, gingerly feeling his back for broken ribs. "Thanks, Mikey."

"Serves you right for acting like a brainless oaf. Both of you," April's voice drifted down from behind the wall of turtles, and AJ scowled in her general direction.

"He hit me first!" AJ protested. "Were you even _in_ the same room? And what the heck is up with all the suits?"

The guys parted as April descended the stairs, and-

April... _April..._

"Bwuh."

Mikey snorted. "I think that was a compliment."

April's lips pursed in annoyance. "Stop it. Don't be gross."

But AJ's brain had temporarily shorted out. She wasn't in a drivesuit. Or her uniform. Or the sweats she wore when training in the Kwoon. She was in a dress. An _amazing _dress. The yellow fabric hung in a gossamer fold over one shoulder, draping down her front in light, airy cascades. The rest of the dress shimmered with beadwork that caught the light, throwing it back at him until he thought he might go blind. She looked... she looked...like a _girl_.

Sighing, she shook her head, and the hair that hung in loose waves down her back brushed over her bare shoulder despite the gold filigree hairband holding most of it back. "I'm going back and changing into my dress uniform."

"Wait!" Donnie protested. "Let's not be hasty."

"Donnie's right," Leo said, though he elbowed his brother as he said it. "Remember why you picked the dress in the first place."

"...wuh?" AJ said cleverly.

Mikey grabbed AJ around the shoulders, sandwiching him uncomfortably tight against the drivesuit. "We're going to a _gala_, dude!"

That was enough to snap him partway out of his stupor. "What the heck is a gala?"

"It's like a party," Mikey explained. "Except snootier and with much lamer music. But people smell a lot nicer."

Leo carefully pried Mikey off of AJ. "They like to trot out the Jaeger pilots for the public every so often. Especially when they're seeking donations from the private sector."

"And when I wear the stupid dress, the guys get a lot less hassle about not showing their faces." Glowering, April folded her arms across her chest. "I have _words_ about that."

"They'll have to wait," Leo said apologetically, taking April's arm. "We need to pick up Angel and get out of here. We're already late."

"Shame Raph can't come," said Donnie.

"Dude, he'll be lucky if he's finished mopping by the time we have the _next_ gala," Mikey said. "Have you _seen_ the size of this place! He's gonna be so mad, too. These things always have the best champagne."

Donnie's head turned sharply toward his brother. "How would you know that? We can't even lift the visors."

"Doesn't matter when you've figured out how to access your liquid nutrition system!" Mikey crowed, bolting down the hall. "Come on, guys! The gala isn't getting any gala-ier!"

"Mikey, wait!" Leo set off after his brother. "You're underage! Get _back here!_"

April stumbled as she attempted to pursue, and with a muttered string of curses, she reached down impatiently and hiked the dress up to her knees, setting off after Leo and Mikey with a flash of gold sandals.

Donnie, who was busy watching April instead of where where he was going, tripped with a yelp and went down the last two steps on his face. "I'm okay!" he said in a voice that was as wavery as his knees. Heaving himself back to his feet, he took off after April, leaving AJ alone in the hall with his mop.

He watched where they'd gone for a moment or two before turning and shifting his bucket further down the hall toward the corridor junction. His angry strokes ate up the lengths of floor, and he was several corridors away from the officers' quarters before he realized that he was starting to raise blisters on his hands. Staring at his abused skin, he let out a quiet sigh. It wasn't like he wanted to be invited to any stupid galas anyway. It was just…

He kicked at a bundle of fabric on the floor, figuring that it was something he could take his anger out on that wouldn't get him in trouble after. It flew for a satisfying few feet before landing again with a clank.

_Wait….'clank?'_

He walked over to the fabric and picked it up, turning it over in his hands. It was a bag, with a drawstring around the mouth, and there was something stuck in the laces. Something made of metal. Frowning, he pulled it loose and stared at it, his eyes widening in dawning comprehension.

Dog tags. Bearing the name, "HAMATO, R."

"Crap," he whispered, and took off down the hallway at a run.

He heard it before he rounded the bend in the corridor. The low, familiar thud of fists against flesh. His hand tightened on the mop, his steps quickening until he fairly flew around the bend and came across six large men in PPDC uniforms beating on a solitary shelled figure on the ground.

Without pausing for breath, AJ barrelled into them, swinging the mop around and landing a blow on the head of the nearest one hard enough that he heard a crack. The attacker went down hard, and without waiting to see if the crack had come from the creep's skull or the handle of the mop, he was already swinging it around to meet his next target.

This one was a little quicker on his game, and he reached out to grab at the mop, stopping the blow from connecting. While AJ grappled with him, he caught sight of another out of the corner of his eye, and this one had the telltale gleam of a knife in his hand.

But AJ needn't have worried. Before the knife-wielder could get close, a green foot shot out and landed square in his face. A twist and a well-placed groin kick took care of the one with the mop, and AJ felt the solid weight of a shell land against his back as Raph braced himself to face the other three.

"You really need to rethink your dance partners, man," AJ said, keeping his back against Raph's shell as they circled. The remaining three were slower to close with them after seeing what had happened to their compatriots. "I don't think these guys quite know how to show a lady a good time."

Raph gave a rough laugh. "Yeah, well. They can't all have your charm and refinement. Tell me, which prison finishing school did you go to again?"

One of the remaining attackers darted toward AJ, getting a decent knock in on AJ's head before he went down screaming as the mop handle caught him in the knee and bent it in the opposite direction. "School of Hard Knocks," AJ said.

"Oh, geez," Raph groaned, striking out at the other two attackers who were closing in on him. "That was bad. Like, _Mikey_-grade bad." He swung out in a series of moves too fast for AJ to track, but the result was a punch hard enough to crack one attacker's jaw. As that one howled and went down, AJ's mop in the kidneys of the last one brought him to his knees, and Raph's knee in his face finished him off.

They stood like that for a moment longer, back to back, breathing heavily as they surveyed the chaos around them. One of them groaned and stirred from his sprawl on the ground, and AJ's hand clenched on the mop handle. "Stay. Down. You. Creep!" Each word was punctuated with a blow from the mop, and on the last one, the mop finally gave up the ghost and splintered. Tossing away the useless pieces of wood, AJ turned back to Raph. "You okay? Six against one. Hardly seems fair to them."

Raph's mouth twisted into a wry grin, made macabre by the trickle of blood running from his split lip. "Yeah. Well. I never claimed to be nice."

The turtle took a step forward, which turned into a stagger, and Raph went down hard. Cursing, AJ ran for the nearest comm panel and punched the emergency button. As the klaxon began to sound, he made his way back to Raph, grabbing the axe from the fire station on his way. Raph may be a stubborn, pig-headed jerk, but six against one was hardly fair, and if there was one thing AJ couldn't stand, it was bullies. If any of them woke up and thought to mess with Raph again, they were going to have another thing coming.

* * *

Takahashi's tone was conversational. AJ hated that. Whenever Takahashi got conversational, it usually meant that something very, very unpleasant was coming down the pipe. He cringed a little, masking the act with a well-timed flinch away from the nurse who was tending the gash on his head.

"So," Takahashi said, rocking back a little on his heels. "Did you break that one's ribs and puncture his lung before or after he became unconscious?"

AJ glanced over at the row of beds, each of which had a thug shackled to it in varying stages of unconsciousness. The only conscious one was elsewhere, with Marshal Hamato. "Uhhh..."

"That's what I thought." Takahashi rubbed his temples. "I need to have a discussion with you about the use of excessive force, I suppose."

"But there were six of them ganging up on him!" AJ protested. "It wasn't fair!"

Takahashi raised a brow. "Yes. You're very concerned about fair." He rolled his eyes. "There will be a formal reprimand, of course, but I am very, very tempted to let that lecture mysteriously slip my mind."

"I wouldn't tell anyone if you did, sir."

"No," Takahashi said dryly. "I don't suppose you would."

AJ was spared having to answer when Hamato re-entered the room, wiping his hands with a handkerchief. Takahashi met his gaze with a raised brow, and Hamato nodded. "It is as we suspected."

"Wonderful," Takahashi muttered. "As if I didn't have enough problems."

Hamato moved to stand next to Raphael's bed, placing one hand gently on the turtle's head. With a groan, Raph stirred, his eyes fluttering open as he stared up into the rat's concerned face. "Father?" Raph attempted to move, and sagged back with a grunt of pain. "What hit me?"

"Six members of Humans First, it would appear," Hamato answered, stroking Raph's head.

"Oh," Raph said quietly. "Right." Grimacing, he raised a hand, delicately feeling out one of the lacerations on his arm before Hamato swatted his hand away. "It's all coming back to me now." He glanced over at AJ, and the corner of his mouth twisted up into a pained grin. "Thanks."

"Yeah, well," AJ said with a shrug and the ghost of an answering grin. "Can't let you have all the fun."

"_Raph!_"

Leo's shout echoed through the infirmary, earning him a few shushes from various medical personnel as he raced through the room toward his brother, the others not far behind. They'd shed their helmets but hadn't taken the time to get out of the rest of the drivesuits, so the resulting stampede through the infirmary was a bit on the noisy side. None of them seemed to care, though. Leo took Raph's hand, looking over him with steel creeping into his expression.

"Who did this?"

AJ shivered a little; he wasn't used to hearing Leo sound quite so cold. Raph wasn't fazed by it, just shrugged and gave his brother the usual cocky grin, though it wasn't quite as effective as it usually was given the cuts and bruising on his face. Wincing against the pain, he reached into the pocket of his uniform with his free hand and pulled out three crumpled strips of fabric in orange, purple, and blue. "Usual suspects. I'm fine, Leo. Stop nannying me." He handed the masks to Leo, whose jaw tightened as he took them.

Donatello snorted, looking up from Raph's chart, which he'd snagged from the end of his bed. "'Fine,' huh?"

Raph frowned. "Mikey, throw something at Donnie for me, would you? I'm a little incapacitated right now."

"Oooh," Mikey said, perking up, but Angel's restraining hand held him back. Her face had been as tough and stubborn as it always was when she had entered the room with the others, but as she took in the extent of how badly Raph had been hurt, her lip began to tremble. She crossed her arms defensively, the light fabric of her lavender dress swirling around her as she turned away.

His eyes widening in concern, Mikey stepped forward and placed an arm around her. AJ thought for a minute she was going to protest, but she gave up, turning toward him and resting her head against his shoulder. Mikey's hand drifted up to stroke her hair, careful not to disturb the glittering silver jewelled vines that held back her hair on the non-purple side. It was the absent gesture of a big brother to his little sister, and AJ was struck again by just how close this family was, to each other and to anyone they'd managed to adopt into their eclectic little group. And not for the first time, he felt a pang deep within himself that he shoved away before it could become more than a whisper.

"So," AJ said, "is anyone gonna tell me what 'Humans First' is?" As he found himself the focus of more gazes than he was strictly comfortable with, he shrugged. "I got banged up, too. I'd like to know who to thank for that."

Hamato and Takahashi exchanged another glance, and Takahashi nodded. "He should know what he's getting into," Takahashi said. "You deal with this. I'll go sort out the mountain of paperwork this is going to generate." Glowering over at the unconscious attackers, he laced his hands together behind his back. "I could break another rib just for _that_."

As Takahashi left, the Hamatos looked at one another and the training Marshal straightened, one hand rising to stroke his beard. "Some time after we came to this place, it became evident that not everyone was satisfied with our arrangement. Our presence here is a tightly guarded secret, but there are many people in the Shatterdome, and our existence is known to some very small circles that reach beyond its walls."

"Humans First being one of those circles?" AJ guessed.

Donnie nodded. "They're not too happy with us. Much like any radical splinter group, they're not terribly organized and don't seem really clear on what their big problem is. It all depends on who you talk to." He placed Raph's chart back on the end of the bed. "Some of them don't mind the fact that we fight for them, but would rather see us in cages when we're not in the Jaeger. Others...just seem to want us dead." He glanced down at Raph, and rested a hand on his brother's knee.

"That time that Raph and Mikey had to run Shell Shocker together," April said quietly. "Leo wasn't just sick. Some members of Humans First poisoned his food."

AJ blinked in shock at the revelation. Okay, he'd known that people could be weird about the turtles - heck, he'd been one of those people - but to try to poison them like they were some kind of vermin? Had they even _met_ the guys?

"But that's why we've got Murakami-san in the kitchen now," Mikey added helpfully. "_Nothing_ gets past him. And the food's _way_ better."

"Looks like they've moved on to a more direct approach," Leo said, the ice still in his voice. "How'd they get to you?"

"Six of 'em on Quantum Bravo's ground crew jumped me. Got a bag over my head before I realized they weren't just interested in talking shop." Raph grimaced. "It was sloppy, I know. Got the bag off, but not before they'd started working me over pretty good, and I wasn't doing so hot." His gaze flicked over to the other bed. "Until goon boy over there showed up. He wields a mean mop."

AJ found himself the focus of Leo's attention at that, and though the look Leo turned on him was gratitude, AJ couldn't help finding it a bit intense. He shrugged offhandedly as his cheeks began to warm. "Yeah, well, like I said. Couldn't go letting Raph have all the fun."

Hamato placed a hand on Leo's shoulder. "We shall incorporate this scenario into our training," he said. "But later. Your brother needs his rest now."

"You're good to go, too," AJ's nurse said, returning with an ice pack. "Come back if you feel dizzy or nauseous."

The Hamatos began to file out, each one finding a way to touch Raph before they left, but April paused next to the bed AJ sat on. Even in the unforgiving light of the infirmary, she practically glowed, and she fiddled with the small gold shellshocker logo that hung as a pendant around her neck, precious stones winking from the four colour points as they caught the light.

"Thank you," she said softly. Then, before she could think about it any longer, she darted forward and kissed him on the cheek.

She was gone before he could quite register what had happened, leaving him staring after her in bewilderment. Belatedly, he pushed himself off the bed intending to follow, only to find his feet getting in his way, sending him sprawling forward on his face as he tripped over them.

"Nice," came the dry voice from the bed above him. "Very graceful."

"Shut up, man," AJ muttered, raising a hand to his cheek. Despite the new bruises forming on his already much-abused body, he couldn't help smiling.

* * *

If anything, it was worse the next day. He felt like he'd been tenderized, and a night's sleep had given everything time to stiffen. He was limping as he made his way into the mess hall, accepting his breakfast tray from the blind chef with a new respect after hearing the story of his real reason for being in the Shatterdome. Murakami smiled at him, and there were a few extra pieces of bacon on his tray as AJ made his way gingerly through the hall in search of a table.

But if anything, the gazes turned his way were as hostile as any he'd received since his arrival in the Shatterdome. Or if not hostile, then... wary. He was confused, until he overheard one whisper as he passed a table: "-heard that he caved a guy's skull in with a mop."

_Oh. Right._

Sighing, he hefted his tray and limped toward the exit. He could go eat on one of the maintenance ramps. They were usually empty this time of day.

"Hey! AJ!"

Turning, he looked over at the Hamatos' table to find Angel waving at him from her seat next to Mikey. "Over here," she called.

He raised a brow. The only open seat was next to Raph, who was bruised, bandaged, but very much a solid presence at the table. Raph met his gaze steadily, and the corner of his mouth turned up in a small smile as he reached over and slid his own tray closer, making a space at the end of the table.

"Come on, goon boy. You don't smell _that_ bad."

AJ stared at him for a moment before he returned the grin and slid into the seat next to him. "Speak for yourself, sewer breath. At least _I _know how to bathe."

"Dousing yourself in deodorant doesn't count as bathing," Raph said, flinging a spoonful of egg at him. "You have to wash the filth _off_ first."

"At least I know how to _use_ deodorant," AJ retorted, with a return volley of egg.

That was met by a shriek from the other end of the table. "Gross! _Why is there egg in my hair?_"

And as the bickering continued, AJ became aware that for the first time since the kaiju had stormed through his old neighbourhood and taken everything away, he was starting to feel something that had been missing for a very, very long time.

The Shatterdome was starting to feel like home.


End file.
